The Vanguard
by Knightshade93
Summary: What does a space marine designated to the first wave do, and how should he think.


Ostarion was silent, his brother around him echoing the same silence. The only was the sound of the drop pod as it screeched through the atmosphere to the ground below. Ostarion had taken part in enough drops to know exactly when to get ready to deploy, his eyes snapped open and bolter was readied moments before the pod hit the ground, metal falling away like a flowers petals. The 14th squad deployed with a speed that made them pivotal for the task at hand. Ostarion and the rest of the squad fanned out, minimising any potential losses they may sustain to explosives and also avoiding concentrated minefields wherever they may be. Ahead lay their target, a brutish bastion that housed the outer air defense control grid. Between the 14th and the bastion however lay a labyrinth of trenches, minefields, barricades and bunkers. The sky was filled with fire above them, heavy fire being traded between the orbiting cruisers of the 3rd fleet and the massive defence lasers of the fortress city, drop pods in their hundreds rained down, practically all of them dummy pod, designed to draw the fire of the AA network and allows the more vital drop pods to get through. It was not all in vain though, the dummy pods were filled with high grade demolition charges, in the event that one does land it explodes, blowing a massive crater to provide cover for the advancing Dawnguard but also damaging or destroying any fortifications that would be nearby. One such pod landed in the middle of a trench a few dozen metres from Ostarion's position, crushing any who were unfortunate enough to be under it, when the charges blew it sent chunks of rockcrete, metal and flesh to fall in a shower over a large area. Ostarion was sprinting towards the impact site before the dummy pod exploded, seeking to exploit the hole in the enemies defences as soon as possible before they could close the gap. Leaping down Ostarion found himself between two groups of renegade militia. In less then a second he weighed up his options and acted, two to his left, one carrying a heavy stubber, three to his right, armed poorly and armoured just as bad. He fired of two shots left, one to the head of the heavy trooper, the other to the chest of his fellow, and before they had even fallen to the ground he spun around and fired three more, all shots to the head. He shouldered his bolter and drew a long razor sharp combat blade and a bolt pistol, this was not the place for long range fire fights, he needed to be quick and efficient in these close quarters. Working his way along the trench he met up with Azawaith, who carried the 14th's heavy flamer and together they approached one of the outer bunkers. Ostarion cracked the door open with grenades and Azawaith doused the occupants with a burst of promethium, the scream of the renegades like music to Ostarion's ears. Together they started to work further into the trench system towards the control bastion. Vox calls alerted Ostarion and Azawaith that their brothers had made good progress, and Daedalus was berating Davion for too liberal use of his meltagun. Regardless at the current rate they should reach the bastion within 15 minutes, barring any unforeseen delays. Ostarion had wet his blade on what seemed like a hundred renegades by the time he and Azawaith reached the main bastion, Sergeant Daedalus and Davion arrived shortly after. A quick melta blast to the door and a grenade inside cleared the immediate room and Azawaith and Daedalus entered first, axe and flame felling those who were not killed by the frag. It seemed odd to Ostarion that the enemy would not place better troops in control of one of their most valuable defensive installations. Regardless the soldiers in the bastion were no better then the many he had killed outside, and Azawaith's flamer doused the control panel in a heavy dose of high grade promethium. Instantly a large portion of the defense grid fell dark. Daedalus voxed back to the fleet.

'The grid is down, repeat the grid is down, commence the full attack.'

Ostarion looked out through one of the portholes to see the forms of Dawnguard gunships coming in low on wings of fire. Now the real battle will begin.


End file.
